Is Scotland producing as many start-up businesses as it could? De¦nitely not. Can we do more to persuade people to take the plunge? Undoubtedly. But we have plenty of other businesses so does it really matter? Well, actually, yes.

¦at all sounds pretty straightforward but, of course, it isn't. ¦ere are all sorts of factors holding people back from starting their own businesses including the problem of raising funding, the high demands of running one and the fear things could go wrong especially in the current economic climate.

In this issue of Insider we are taking an in depth look at the issue of business start-ups in Scotland in the wake of the recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for Scotland which once again revived this long-running debate.

I spoke to a lot of people but still only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the many organisations able to help budding entrepreneurs. What I discovered - and really knew already - is Scotland is blessed with a great support system for start-ups with Business Gateway, the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust, the Entrepreneurial Exchange, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise.

Much work has been done in schools and further and higher education to promote entrepreneurship and there is a more positive attitude generally in society towards people running their own business.

Some, including GEM author Jonathan Levie, feel there is a gap in further education colleges about encouraging students to be entrepreneurs. However my research found there is already a lot going on in FECs though it is under the radar.

My big worry is that we get too bogged down with statistics. Scotland produces fewer businesses per 10,000 people than the rest of the UK. So what? ¦e thing that really matters is that the businesses we produce ¦rstly survive and secondly that some of them have the potential to grow in a big way.

Many established business leaders do great work in schools, colleges and universities encouraging youngsters. But we need more bosses to do that. And they don't have to be in the big league. ¦e guy who does plumbing and odd jobs for me lives in a much bigger house than mine, drives a bigger car and keeps a lot of people in employment. He is a great inspiration for a youngster on a plumbing course in my local college who may one day do the same.

We must not forget the many people who start businesses later in life like Bryan Wilson whose company is number one in our Sprint100 listing. Wilson decided at the age of 45 that a¦er years of making money for others in the commercial property development industry he would try and make it for himself and he has succeeded.

Once again our Sprint100 shows there are some excellent small companies in Scotland making good progress in a very challenging environment. What does disappoint me is that Scotland is still not producing hugely scalable businesses on the back of new technology like the internet.

I recently watched ¦e Social Network which tells the story of how Facebook was created by a student in the US. Even he was advised to move from Boston to California to make sure his business took o¦. Is there a way of instilling the excitement and creativity of the west coast of the US into Scotland? We need more talented youngsters to start their own businesses here and must make the country as attractive as possible for them. ¦at does not start with arguing over statistics but rather taking action to create the right conditions to nurture the business leaders of tomorrow. ¦